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Website 19 Development Kick-Off

On Thursday, the Joomla project (the content management system that powers this site) released the first beta of Joomla 1.5. I would have called it Joomla 2.0, personally, because 1.5 is a major rewrite of the CMS code-base. To implement it on my site will require quite a bit of work, but that’s okay because I had big things planned for Website 19 anyway.

I’ve hinted in the past at some changes to the focus of this website, and have made a number of subtle changes to its navigation structure and trashed a lot of old/outdated content in an effort to tweak and adjust it in the direction I’m going. I also had planned a number of technological changes for Website 18, but put them off when I realized it would be better to tie those changes in with the Joomla 1.5 upgrade and a later version of the site.

So, the long and short of it is that I’m going to make a lot of changes for Website 19 and the Joomla 1.5 system. I’m beginning early work on it right now, though I don’t expect it to go ‘live’ for at least a few months. Everything is on the table—the organization, features, the look, and more—so Off on a Tangent may look very different when I’m done. It could potentially be a bigger shift than the initial move to the Mambo/Joomla system in the first place.

But I’d like some input. What do you like and dislike about Off on a Tangent, how can I make it better, and what features have you seen elsewhere that you’d like to see here? Already under consideration is implementation of a full-fledged interactive forum system, which would replace the existing comment function and encourage/allow more robust discussion of the topics and articles on the site (and allow users to begin new topics).

Let me know what you think!

Scott Bradford has been putting his opinions on his website since 1995—before most people knew what a website was. He has been a professional web developer in the public- and private-sector for over twenty years. He is an independent constitutional conservative who believes in human rights and limited government, and a Catholic Christian whose beliefs are summarized in the Nicene Creed. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Public Administration from George Mason University. He loves Pink Floyd and can play the bass guitar . . . sort-of. He’s a husband, pet lover, amateur radio operator, and classic AMC/Jeep enthusiast.